Casa Systems, a Tech Casanova
- $533.956M Market Capitalization
Casa Systems Inc. (CASA.Q) announced today that it has been awarded a multi-year purchase contract from Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.NYSE). Additionally, Verizon will make an investment of approximately $40 million in Casa common stock, resulting in a 9.9% ownership stake. Following the news, Casa’s shares skyrocketed to over 70% shortly after opening.
“Casa Systems is excited to be at the forefront of this shift towards a cutting edge, cloud-based strategy through this partnership with Verizon. This agreement validates our leadership in 5G Core and MEC and positions Casa Systems as a key champion for cloud-native 5G infrastructure in the United States,” said Jerry Guo, President and CEO of Casa Systems.
For the record, we are talking about Verizon, the major American wireless network operator providing home internet to more than 30 million homes and 2 million businesses. That being said, it’s no wonder the Company’s shares have taken to the moon after securing a multi-year contract with Verizon. So, what’s the deal? What makes Casa so appealing?
Casa develops disruptive architectures built specifically to meet the needs of service provider networks. The Company offers a suite of open, cloud-native network solutions to assist service providers in building networks without boundaries in order to maximize revenue-generating capabilities. Casa is deployed commercially in more than 70 countries and services over 475 Tier 1 and regional service providers worldwide.
Solutions
According to the terms of the agreement, Casa will provide its 5G Core Network Functions to Verizon, helping power its public Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) service offering. Casa’s 5G Core Network Functions encompasses a variety of solutions under the Company’s Axyom Software Framework, including:
- Access & Mobility Management Function
- Session Management Function
- Service Communication Proxy
- Network Repository Function
- Network Slice Selection Function
- User Plane Function
- Non-3GPP Interworking Function
- Trusted Non-3GPP Gateway Function
As you probably could have guessed by the name, Verizon’s Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) is a mobile edge computing platform available for businesses. What is mobile edge computing, anyways? Glad you asked. For context, mobile edge computing provides a computing environment that can be used to deploy applications and services as well as store and process content in close proximity to mobile users.
The main benefits provided by edge solutions include low latency, high bandwidth, device processing, and data offload, as well as trusted computing and storage. With this in mind, edge infrastructure can be managed or hosted by service providers, such as Verizon. As such, service providers are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities presented by edge computing.
“Casa Systems is an important member of our 5G and MEC ecosystem, providing flexible applications that will allow us to scale up for our customers as real-time solutions continue to grow,” said Kyle Malady, President, Global Networks and Technology at Verizon.
Bearing this in mind, Verizon’s Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) is essentially the same thing. The company’s MEC technology moves computing resources onto cloud servers at the network edge, as close as possible to places where data is generated, AKA mobile users.
If you would like to know more about Casa’s contract with Verizon, the Company held a conference call today at 9:00 AM EST. A replay of the audio webcast will be available in the investor relations section of Casa’s website for 90 days after the conference call.
Casa’s share price opened at $6.04 today, compared to a previous close of $3.89. The Company’s shares were up 67% and were trading at $6.52 as of 11:34 AM EST.